Slim Notini

Swedish blues and gospel musician, mainly pianist, but also singer, born January 29, 1946. Notini grew up in a musical family and began playing the piano in the municipal music school at the age of eleven. He initially played traditional jazz with some friends and made his stage debut in 1962, but then switched to blues. In 1962 he formed Slim's Blues Gang, in which he played piano and sang, Bill Öhrström played drums and the latter's little brother Guy Öhrström double bass. Göran Ramberg participated in alto saxophone and Bosse Hansson was also with a short time as a guitarist. In 1967, Notini traveled to Chicago, where he performed as a pianist (under the name Stockholm Slim) on Magic Sam's record West Side Soul, which received enormous international attention. Even before the trip to the USA he had started a collaboration with Peps Persson, then under the name Linkin 'Louisiana Peps, and appeared on his first LP Blues Connection which was recorded in February 1967. In 1971 The Blues Ain't Strange, Notini's first LP was released and on which Roffe Wikström also appeared on guitar. In 1975 came the album "Blues På Svenska: Peps & Slim". In the mid-1970s, Notini also worked extensively with Cyndee Peters. Slim then became a member of Roffe Wikström's band after Gösta Nilsson became Peter's new pianist and participated in Wikström's LP "Jävla måndag", on which Ali Lundbohm and Teddy Walter, among others, played. Notini was then recruited by the priest and jazz trumpeter Lars "Sumpen" Sundbom to the band Sumpen Swingsters. In 1976, in addition to making music, Notini started together with Jonas Bernholm and Bengt Weine the record company Route 66 Records. In the years 1978–1982, Notini studied at the Stockholm Academy of Music. He immersed himself in musicology and music production and in 1983 got a job as an artist mediator at Yrkestrubadurernas förening (YTF). In the years 1986–1988 he had a band with three saxophonists (Göran Eriksson, Janne Lööf and H.P. Andersson), guitar, bass and drums, who played Fat's Domino music in both Stockholm and Gothenburg. In 1977, Notini met his future wife, Maria, at a jazz club. She was ordained a priest and eventually Notini also became a devout believer. This led him into the gospel in the 1990s. With the help of Jonas Bernholm, he published a long reissue series of gospel, The Golden Age of Gospel 1945–1965. He also started the gospel group Slim's Gospel Train and also leads his own choir, which includes six singers and in which he sometimes sings lead, but is mainly leader, arranger and accompanist. In 2009 the album Don't Wonder About Him came with Slim´s Gospel Train. He has also collaborated a lot with gospel singer Kiralina Salandy, who came to Sweden from Canada and became a soloist in Slim's Gospel Train. The album I Feel the Holy Spirit with Kiralina & Slim's Gospel Train was released in 2015. Notini, however, to some extent still engages in blues; Slim's Blues Gang has released the CD Bill Slim Guy: 47 Years Later (2011) under the new name Bill, Slim & Guy.